vivo, the Chinese smartphone known for its daring smartphone concepts is scheduled to unveil another concept phone this month.
The company is scheduled to unveil the APEX 2020 concept phone on February 28 globally which is Friday this week. It seems like it was planned for a MWC 2020 reveal that was to start yesterday and end on Thursday but vivo has gone ahead to schedule this release anyway.
The device will be introduced via an online launch event. The vivo APEX 2020 will have a 6.45 inch screen with a 120 degree curve on both sides which is quite extreme. It is also believed to have a 120Hz refresh rate display which has become a new trend in smartphones. It will also feature second generation pressure sensitive on-screen buttons.
そして出てくると出口はすべてVIVO APEX 2020。バルセロナに来た人たちは「なんだこれ?」だろうなあ pic.twitter.com/R0uRJCmqgE
— Yasuhiro Yamane/山根康宏 (@hkyamane) February 20, 2020
The mysterious phone had ads all over Barcelona that revealed more specs. According to Android Authority, the APEX 2020 ads also mention 5-7.5x optical zoom and possibly a 48MP “gimbal” camera. Gimbals are used in pro photography for stabilizing video which means it might feature really stable mechanisms to shoot video. Apparently the branding also mentions 5G which means it might be packing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 which is paired with Qualcomm’s 5G modem.
The vivo APEX 2020 follows last year’s APEX 2019 concept phone which displayed a number of cool features. Last year’s model did not have any buttons at all which means you needed the always on display to mark the touch sensitive “buttons”. It also had a full display fingerprint reader which allowed read your fingerprint from anywhere around the screen.
The whole point of vivo APEX phones is to show the cool things vivo is working on from their R&D labs and we have to wait and see what they are planning to announce this coming Friday with the next model.